Ranking Red Burgs feminine to masculine

How would you rank the main villages of the Cote D’Or in terms of most feminine flirtysmile to most masculine [training.gif] reds? Is village/vineyard generally a good proxy for feminine/masculine, or do you have to include producer/vintage as well to get something reasonably accurate? [thankyou.gif]

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[popcorn.gif]

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It’s a fun question, but I don’t think it’s possible to answer it… maybe if you held vintage or producer as constant, but beyond that there are too many variables.

I like the idea of terroir, but in reality it’s just one of many things that contribute to a wine.

Sure I’ll play. Obviously there are so many variables that this can’t be anything other than a fun exercise (I always remember Suzanne’s spot on comment about a lovely late '90s Fourrier Gevrey that it was one of the best Chambolles she ever had) but given that caveat how about

Beaune
Chambolle
Savigny
Pernand
Morey
Volnay
Nuits
Gevrey
Corton
Vosne
Pommard

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Yes, impossibly simplistic, but not entirely. And fun.

I’d largely concur with Jay’s ranking, but I’d put Nuits closer to the masculine end (are you focusing on Chevillon rather than Gouges?) and bump Vosne up the list a bit.

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  • head tilt *
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Personally I would love to move away from using these descriptors, but I understand they’re still valuable in discussing structure.

In my opinion — and relatively limited experience compared to others on this board — producer is a far greater determining factor than appellation. Often I think appellation is conflated with the producers that dominate the area.

For example, a CM from Mugnier or Bertheau is likely one of the wines most might describe as “feminine”, while (in my experience), a young de Vogue can be quite austere or “masculine.”

Again, just my opinion…

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I had to double check the date this thread was posted in case it was one of those zombie threads that got resurrected somehow.

People still try to anthropomorphize wines by associating them with genders? Wow, I had no idea.

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Chambolle has always struck me as feminine and Corton as masculine. Many villages are more varied. Vosne is a difficult village because it’s so different based on vineyard and producer. RSV has been much more subtle and feminine in my experience and Richebourg much more powerful and masculine.

That’s my sense as well. Producer and site (if relevant) trump village.

Really?

What lazy analytics.

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i don’t think this board existed in 1955…

like actually wtf

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We just attended a baseball game on the invitation of two good gal friends–both former D-1 basketball players–who could likely beat the crap out of most on this board in a dark alley if they needed to. They are quite feminine, but would likely significantly skew the list of wine characteristics people are thinking of.

It would be nice to hear proposals of better ways to express a spectrum of wine styles from folks. ?friendly vs grumpy? Pretty vs, well, not so pretty? (there are plenty of pretty guys, so don’t jump on that one) spherical vs angular? I don’t know, there must be better ones.

I don’t know, I’m gay and have quite a lot of friends who are gender-nonconforming, or who are in relationships with people who are gender-nonconforming, people who have spent a lot of their lives on the pointy end of what it means to be male or female. To us, associating a gender with an object conveys real information about it and is a meaningful thing to say. My friends will know what I mean when I say a wine is feminine, or a reply is masculine.

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They sound like Corton ladies to me.

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Read the Merriam-Webster definition of feminine and explain how any of those descriptors is relevant with wine?

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We just did this… Can a wine be accurately described as feminine or masculine? - WINE TALK - WineBerserkers

Also as a side note to all the astonished and disgusted people posting on this thread about the use of these descriptors: finding that thread using the search feature brought up well over 3000 results for the word feminine. So yes, it’s used often. pileon

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Faberge vs Rodin


Wayne Gretzky vs Cam Neely


Mozart vs Metallica (perhaps a bridge to far…)


That said, given that Morey St. Denis has both Bonnes Mares and Clos de la Roche at the Cam Neely end of the spectrum and also contains Clos St. Denis, Clos des
Lambrays, and Clos de Tart(all very much to the Gretzky side of things IMO, especially Clos St.Denis), sorting by village seems like will contain almost as much bad information as good.

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Describing a wine as feminine says as much about the poster as it does about the wine. Maybe more.

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Impossible to rank anywhere exactly …

quite masculine:
Corton
Nuits-SG
Gevrey
Pommard


quite feminine:
Beaune
Chambolle
Volnay

in between:
Morey
Vougeot
Vosne
Savigny
Chassagne

… but it depends vm on producer ( and vintage)

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